Dick Howard - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Dick Howard
Philosophy & Social Criticism, 1993
L'A. essaie d'expliquer pourquoi, dans les annees 60, la Nouvelle gauche aux Etats Unis a... more L'A. essaie d'expliquer pourquoi, dans les annees 60, la Nouvelle gauche aux Etats Unis a ete tentee par la critique marxiste de la democratie formelle au nom d'une reelle democratie, et pourquoi la tentative de developper une politique marxiste dans une societe democratique aboutirait a une politique radicale qui elaborant les structures de la societe democratique moderne
Political Philosophy and Public Purpose, 2019
Veritas (Porto Alegre), 2008
O artigo revisita a obra de Hannah Arendt On Revolution e os eventos históricos da revolução amer... more O artigo revisita a obra de Hannah Arendt On Revolution e os eventos históricos da revolução americana, de forma a reformular os chamados “problemas da época”. Embora todo ator político reivindique que as suas políticas sejam a encarnação da vontade unida da nação em uma democracia, abre-se a porta da antipolítica na medida em que a natureza simbólica – e portanto contestada – do povo soberano é reduzida à sua realidade temporária. Tal é a lição crucial a ser extraída ainda hoje da obra The Origins of Totalitarianism, que pode ser lida como uma tentativa de pensar a expressão mais extrema da antipolítica. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Antipolítica. Arendt. Democracia. Revolução.
Before 1989, few people expected the overthrow of what was called “really existing socialism.” Al... more Before 1989, few people expected the overthrow of what was called “really existing socialism.” Although that euphemism signaled a kind of political pessimism it also expressed a shared understanding that, whatever name the rulers gave it, this was not the socialism that had inspired and given courage to so many people for well over a century. That may be one reason that, once the Wall had fallen, everyone seemed to have his or her own explanation of why the rupture was inevitable. The fact that only a few expected it does not mean that no one wished for change, even radical and systemic change; but the other fact, that everyone thought that they could understand it after it had occurred, does not mean that the roots of change could actually have been understood prior to its occurrence. That is the nature of politics: there is no certainty of success, yet, after the fact, the results seem to have been preordained.
The Birth of American Political Thought, 1763–87, 1986
Revue française de science politique, 1990
La Constitution des Etats-Unis et ses dix premiers amendements (Bill of Rights) ne mentionnent pa... more La Constitution des Etats-Unis et ses dix premiers amendements (Bill of Rights) ne mentionnent pas les droits « affirmatifs » tels que le droit à l'instruction, le droit à l'emploi, le droit au bien-être. Depuis quelques dizaines d'années, la Cour suprême a fait un usage audacieux de ses pouvoirs de contrôle de constitutionnalité pour renforcer les droits individuels, mais principalement par des arrêts qui respectent la tradition et limitent les pouvoirs exercés par les autorités sur les individus. En invoquant la garantie d'« égale protection » qui figure dans le 14e amendement, les tribunaux ont cependant, surtout dans les années 1960-1970, entrepris de réformer la société américaine dans des domaines tels que les relations raciales, l'éducation, le bien-être social, et ont ainsi tendu à estomper la distinction entre les droits traditionnels, à caractère négatif, et les nouveaux droits sociaux. Dans certains Etats, la Constitution et les tribunaux ont explicite...
Philosophy & Social Criticism, 1981
From Marx to Kant, 1993
A. THE STRUCTURE OF THE MODERN Cartesian doubt usually is considered the beginning of modern phil... more A. THE STRUCTURE OF THE MODERN Cartesian doubt usually is considered the beginning of modern philosophy. But this doubt is only a beginning. It does not fully determine the structure of the modern, nor does it explain how modernity became possible, in fact or in theory. The doubt has deepened as modernisation and rationalisation have spread horizontally to new domains at the same time that their vertical penetration has increased. This is not the place for a sociology of knowledge. Suffice it that by the end of the nineteenth century, modernisation appeared to be a method for increasing the social good. At the same time, from the cognitive point of view, the substantive, modernity, came to indicate a structure driven by an internal crisis. The doubt that produced positive social and political accomplishments turned on its own products, and turned too against itself. The critique of traditional forms of life and thought typical of the early, confident phase of modernity gave way to self-criticism. While sociological and historical grounds can be adduced to explain the transformation of positive modernisation into a self-critical modern civilisation, the results of the Frankfurt school's attempt to join together the insights of Marx, Weber, and Freud suggest the possibility and the necessity of a broader synthesis. The historicaltheoretical (and pessimistic) conclusion of this orientation is Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment. It argues that the traditional attitudes subjected to corrosive doubt were rationalised out of existence. The modern forms that have replaced them are now themselves the objects of critical doubt. Doubt becomes self-doubt; the critique loses its self-confidence, its justification can no longer be taken for granted. The result is a loss of anchorage and a 'crisis' of the modern sciences. The second-generation Frankfurt theorist Jiirgen Habermas has confronted this crisis in a series of works whose summation is the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas joins a theory of social action and a theory of the social system by means of a theory of social evolution that mediates between the two. The theory of social action can be interpreted as 49
The Marxian Legacy, 2019
The reader of this volume may wonder why some thinkers were included while others are absent. The... more The reader of this volume may wonder why some thinkers were included while others are absent. The answer lies in the concept of a legacy and in the politics of its inheritance. The wordplay is important. Designating the legacy as Marxian suggests that Marx and those Marxists who claim to be his heirs have no monopoly on the theoretical definition or practical realization of radical politics. By refusing to accord Marx the sole paternity of the political search for what classical philosophers called ‘the Good Life in the City’, it becomes possible to rethink political theory and the light that it casts on contemporary political choices. My principles of inclusion and exclusion can be explained by this broader goal. As for Marx himself, to whose work I have returned several times during the years since the first edition of The Marxian Legacy, he is also best understood within the context constituted by his legacy, which has practical as well as theoretical, as the title of this chapte...
Raison présente, 1995
L'A. montre que les projets de l'hermeneutique et de la theorie critique, loin de s'e... more L'A. montre que les projets de l'hermeneutique et de la theorie critique, loin de s'exclure, se rejoignent. Il detaille leurs modalites respectives et se demande comment comprendre la politique a travers leur sillage
Between Politics and Antipolitics, 2016
It is perhaps presumptuous to write about oneself and one’s friends as reflecting the theoretical... more It is perhaps presumptuous to write about oneself and one’s friends as reflecting the theoretical project of a political movement as diverse and also as ephemeral as “the” New Left. Yet a contribution to a Festschrift offers the occasion both to recall a shared past and to reflect on one’s own passages over the years. It is also an occasion to express esteem for the person whose contributions are being honored.1
Between Politics and Antipolitics, 2016
I should note from the outset that Claude Lefort would never have endorsed the title given to thi... more I should note from the outset that Claude Lefort would never have endorsed the title given to this chapter.1 A political biography rather than a philosophical analysis is a paradoxical way to keep alive one of the most significant political thinkers in post-war France who shied away from the lure and allure of popularity. While many well-known French thinkers since the 1980s have collaborated with younger intellectuals to produce autobiographies on the basis of informal “entretiens,” Lefort turned down several requests to lend himself to this kind of popular simplification of his thought. Politics was central to Lefort’s life and to his thought; indeed, he would refuse to accept their separation, as if one could think without acting or act without thinking. There is a further reason that Lefort would not approve of the idea of a political biography. As he indicated in the title to his study of Machiavelli, to understand the working of political thought it is necessary also to analyze how that work continues to work among new generations.2
Philosophy & Social Criticism, 1993
L'A. essaie d'expliquer pourquoi, dans les annees 60, la Nouvelle gauche aux Etats Unis a... more L'A. essaie d'expliquer pourquoi, dans les annees 60, la Nouvelle gauche aux Etats Unis a ete tentee par la critique marxiste de la democratie formelle au nom d'une reelle democratie, et pourquoi la tentative de developper une politique marxiste dans une societe democratique aboutirait a une politique radicale qui elaborant les structures de la societe democratique moderne
Political Philosophy and Public Purpose, 2019
Veritas (Porto Alegre), 2008
O artigo revisita a obra de Hannah Arendt On Revolution e os eventos históricos da revolução amer... more O artigo revisita a obra de Hannah Arendt On Revolution e os eventos históricos da revolução americana, de forma a reformular os chamados “problemas da época”. Embora todo ator político reivindique que as suas políticas sejam a encarnação da vontade unida da nação em uma democracia, abre-se a porta da antipolítica na medida em que a natureza simbólica – e portanto contestada – do povo soberano é reduzida à sua realidade temporária. Tal é a lição crucial a ser extraída ainda hoje da obra The Origins of Totalitarianism, que pode ser lida como uma tentativa de pensar a expressão mais extrema da antipolítica. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Antipolítica. Arendt. Democracia. Revolução.
Before 1989, few people expected the overthrow of what was called “really existing socialism.” Al... more Before 1989, few people expected the overthrow of what was called “really existing socialism.” Although that euphemism signaled a kind of political pessimism it also expressed a shared understanding that, whatever name the rulers gave it, this was not the socialism that had inspired and given courage to so many people for well over a century. That may be one reason that, once the Wall had fallen, everyone seemed to have his or her own explanation of why the rupture was inevitable. The fact that only a few expected it does not mean that no one wished for change, even radical and systemic change; but the other fact, that everyone thought that they could understand it after it had occurred, does not mean that the roots of change could actually have been understood prior to its occurrence. That is the nature of politics: there is no certainty of success, yet, after the fact, the results seem to have been preordained.
The Birth of American Political Thought, 1763–87, 1986
Revue française de science politique, 1990
La Constitution des Etats-Unis et ses dix premiers amendements (Bill of Rights) ne mentionnent pa... more La Constitution des Etats-Unis et ses dix premiers amendements (Bill of Rights) ne mentionnent pas les droits « affirmatifs » tels que le droit à l'instruction, le droit à l'emploi, le droit au bien-être. Depuis quelques dizaines d'années, la Cour suprême a fait un usage audacieux de ses pouvoirs de contrôle de constitutionnalité pour renforcer les droits individuels, mais principalement par des arrêts qui respectent la tradition et limitent les pouvoirs exercés par les autorités sur les individus. En invoquant la garantie d'« égale protection » qui figure dans le 14e amendement, les tribunaux ont cependant, surtout dans les années 1960-1970, entrepris de réformer la société américaine dans des domaines tels que les relations raciales, l'éducation, le bien-être social, et ont ainsi tendu à estomper la distinction entre les droits traditionnels, à caractère négatif, et les nouveaux droits sociaux. Dans certains Etats, la Constitution et les tribunaux ont explicite...
Philosophy & Social Criticism, 1981
From Marx to Kant, 1993
A. THE STRUCTURE OF THE MODERN Cartesian doubt usually is considered the beginning of modern phil... more A. THE STRUCTURE OF THE MODERN Cartesian doubt usually is considered the beginning of modern philosophy. But this doubt is only a beginning. It does not fully determine the structure of the modern, nor does it explain how modernity became possible, in fact or in theory. The doubt has deepened as modernisation and rationalisation have spread horizontally to new domains at the same time that their vertical penetration has increased. This is not the place for a sociology of knowledge. Suffice it that by the end of the nineteenth century, modernisation appeared to be a method for increasing the social good. At the same time, from the cognitive point of view, the substantive, modernity, came to indicate a structure driven by an internal crisis. The doubt that produced positive social and political accomplishments turned on its own products, and turned too against itself. The critique of traditional forms of life and thought typical of the early, confident phase of modernity gave way to self-criticism. While sociological and historical grounds can be adduced to explain the transformation of positive modernisation into a self-critical modern civilisation, the results of the Frankfurt school's attempt to join together the insights of Marx, Weber, and Freud suggest the possibility and the necessity of a broader synthesis. The historicaltheoretical (and pessimistic) conclusion of this orientation is Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment. It argues that the traditional attitudes subjected to corrosive doubt were rationalised out of existence. The modern forms that have replaced them are now themselves the objects of critical doubt. Doubt becomes self-doubt; the critique loses its self-confidence, its justification can no longer be taken for granted. The result is a loss of anchorage and a 'crisis' of the modern sciences. The second-generation Frankfurt theorist Jiirgen Habermas has confronted this crisis in a series of works whose summation is the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas joins a theory of social action and a theory of the social system by means of a theory of social evolution that mediates between the two. The theory of social action can be interpreted as 49
The Marxian Legacy, 2019
The reader of this volume may wonder why some thinkers were included while others are absent. The... more The reader of this volume may wonder why some thinkers were included while others are absent. The answer lies in the concept of a legacy and in the politics of its inheritance. The wordplay is important. Designating the legacy as Marxian suggests that Marx and those Marxists who claim to be his heirs have no monopoly on the theoretical definition or practical realization of radical politics. By refusing to accord Marx the sole paternity of the political search for what classical philosophers called ‘the Good Life in the City’, it becomes possible to rethink political theory and the light that it casts on contemporary political choices. My principles of inclusion and exclusion can be explained by this broader goal. As for Marx himself, to whose work I have returned several times during the years since the first edition of The Marxian Legacy, he is also best understood within the context constituted by his legacy, which has practical as well as theoretical, as the title of this chapte...
Raison présente, 1995
L'A. montre que les projets de l'hermeneutique et de la theorie critique, loin de s'e... more L'A. montre que les projets de l'hermeneutique et de la theorie critique, loin de s'exclure, se rejoignent. Il detaille leurs modalites respectives et se demande comment comprendre la politique a travers leur sillage
Between Politics and Antipolitics, 2016
It is perhaps presumptuous to write about oneself and one’s friends as reflecting the theoretical... more It is perhaps presumptuous to write about oneself and one’s friends as reflecting the theoretical project of a political movement as diverse and also as ephemeral as “the” New Left. Yet a contribution to a Festschrift offers the occasion both to recall a shared past and to reflect on one’s own passages over the years. It is also an occasion to express esteem for the person whose contributions are being honored.1
Between Politics and Antipolitics, 2016
I should note from the outset that Claude Lefort would never have endorsed the title given to thi... more I should note from the outset that Claude Lefort would never have endorsed the title given to this chapter.1 A political biography rather than a philosophical analysis is a paradoxical way to keep alive one of the most significant political thinkers in post-war France who shied away from the lure and allure of popularity. While many well-known French thinkers since the 1980s have collaborated with younger intellectuals to produce autobiographies on the basis of informal “entretiens,” Lefort turned down several requests to lend himself to this kind of popular simplification of his thought. Politics was central to Lefort’s life and to his thought; indeed, he would refuse to accept their separation, as if one could think without acting or act without thinking. There is a further reason that Lefort would not approve of the idea of a political biography. As he indicated in the title to his study of Machiavelli, to understand the working of political thought it is necessary also to analyze how that work continues to work among new generations.2